Singapore Malays, Non-Kow Towing Malays and National Unity in Malaysia

This is probably the last in the series about Malays – “liberal Malays”, “unliberal Malays”, conservative Malays and now the Singapore Malays and the non-kow towing Malays. Hopefully they provide more insight into the Malay mentality and position on issues that affect national unity in the country.

The first article below puts out the agreeable views of a Malay often with disagreeable views. He whacks the views of Singapore Malays living under the “Little Emperor” in the “Little Middle Kigndom” down south. They have been giving out rather condescending views about Malaysian Malays in the last few weeks probably in order to protect existing or promote the prospects of whatever posts or positions they may have in the People’s Action Party, Government or related organizations. They are still living under the “ex-prime minister-cum-senior minister-cum-minister mental”, said the writer. The poor Malays in Singapore.

But the article is not free from cynicism of the Malay-led authorities in Malaysia.

The next article is one that was published in the Sin Chew newspaper and it criticizes the Malay-led Government of Malaysia for not recognizing the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) issued by the Chinese independent schools which use Mandarin as the medium of instruction and which are clearly in contravention of Article 152 of the Constitution on Bahasa Malaysia as the National Language of the country. It also talks about the Chinese – that gambling is not Chinese culture. That is disputed by a reader who gave his views on the matter, given below that article.

The last article is written by a Malay apologist who is “not going to offer apologies” for speaking about NEM and market-driven forces, open competition, no New Economic Policy (NEP} in the New Economic Model (NEM). “Insisting on eminence premised on inherent rights and inherent privileges for example is a clear position that is against market forces. It will fail”, he said emphatically. He probably thinks of himself as a liberal Malay and an economist-politician. He is a one-term State Assemblyman who spoke for incorruptible leadership but idolized and promoted the UMNO Youth Head, Khairy Jamaluddin, a well known culprit of corruption. “This is no liberal or illiberal Malay talk. It’s just Malay talking”, he pleads.

Let’s talk about the above in the usual manner. All coments are welcome, guaranteed of being published so long as not against the civil and other laws.

Well, readers, do read the comments and the replies to them as well in order to see both sides of the coin.

by Art Harun who “describes himself as a non-governmental organism, intent on infecting the conscience”.

June 29, 2010

To all Singapore Malays, I am writing this to tell you how lucky we all are in Malaysia. You think you all are so great, you sure have not seen how greater we, Malaysian Malays, are.

What you think? You think Johor Baru is a place full of thieves, kidnappers and gangsters, don’t you? Well, I wouldn’t blame you. Because that is what your ex-prime minister-cum-your senior minister-cum-your minister mental said.

He did not like Malaysia because he was jealous of our success, peace and tranquility. And so he said that in an affidavit in a court proceeding. As Singapore Malays, you of course have to kow tow to your Supreme Leader and so you agreed with him, in’it? In’it?

am sure you don’t really agree with him but you cannot say so, in’it? Because you can’t really say anything in Singapore, especially when what you wanted to say would go against what your Supremely Total leader said, in’it? Can you?
Well, you know something? We Malaysian Malays can say anything we like. Of course, we cannot insult Islam lah… kalau insult Islam we kena lah. But a bit only lah, not like you all in Singapore.

We would only be detained without trial under the Internal Security Act. Then most probably we would have to leave Malaysia and live elsewhere. But you see, we don’t have to kow tow like you all. That’s the point, get it?

Hmm… do you know that Kia has launched a new car? Yes. It’s called Kia Soo. LOL!!!

Allow me now to continue to write in proper Queen’s English. Because my Singlish attempt in the foregoing paragraphs is really pathetic, as you can see.

That is because we Malaysian Malays are taught maths and science in proper English. Because of that, we Malaysian Malays are so proficient in English although we are not as good as you are in maths and science.

The purpose of my writing this letter to you is to tell you that we, the Malaysian Malays, do not have to kow tow to anybody. We are the best Malays in the whole world. The luckiest Malays in the whole world. And the most successful Malays in the whole wide world, including the cyber world.

Any other Malays, from any other country, or part of the world (including the cyber world) are just not as good or successful as us, the Malaysian Malays. They are simply at the 10th place out of 10. We, the Malaysian Malays, for your information, occupy the first nine places. That is how good we are.

I tell you what. We have a Malay astronaut. Here he is known as AngkasaOne. We even have a reserve astronaut. He is also Malay. He is known as AngkasaTwo. Don’t ask me why we mix a Malay word for “space” with an English word for the first two numbers to call them two astronauts.

Perhaps that is because we want to impress that we are taught maths in English. Yes, that must be it. Now, you all in Singapore do not have any AngkasaOne do you? See? We are better than you. And we do not have to kow tow to anybody.

We also swam across the English Channel, fully protected from jelly fish in a cage. And we have a Datukship for that. You all Singapore Malays got like that one ah? Mana ada?

Of course, later they was a Chinese boy who swam without the protective cage and even much faster than us the Malaysian Malays, but he did not get Datukship, you see. So we are better. And we did that without having to kow tow to anybody. You all. You kow tow also cannot do like that one, for sure (my Singlish is getting better, eh?)

Then we also have many big Malay businessmen in Malaysia. Our national carrier, MAS (not Malay Airline System, it’s Malaysia Airline System, mind you), was owned by a Malay. He made MAS the best. And one of the biggest.

So much so that when he left, MAS was in such a solvent state that it could spend RM1.55 million to buy some paints in various colours splashed over some white canvas and put them in the chairman’s office. And we did it without having to kow tow to anybody, kau tau?

We also have Malay businessmen who built highways from the north way up to the south. Now, had your government agreed, we would have extended that highway to your small ciku state via a second Causeway.

But true to your kiasu attitude, being jealous of our success and achievements (especially because we have several excellent national cars and the fact that we now have not one, but two, submarines — which mind you, can now dive in tropical waters — and also the fact that we run the “hottest race on Earth” — which is to be renamed “the monsoon-est race on Earth” — once a year), your government don’t agree to that proposal.

But we always have a way. We will build a crooked and very scenic bridge on OUR side. Padan muka you all! We cannot build a straight bridge, we would build a crooked one.

More on the hottest race on Earth. We know you all are envious of our F1 circuit, which is the best in the world (in 1999 that is). You all are so envious with this circuit. That we know. You all don’t have enough land and therefore you can’t build one.

You also cannot have a F1 circuit race unless you want the F1 race to be held underwater. So you have a street F1 race. Street race! Hah! In Malaysia, we Malaysian Malays do that every night. We call ourselves Rempits.

Congratulations! You have turned the F1 drivers into Rempits! And to be different, and to kow tow to Europeans fans, you have to hold the race at night. In Malaysia, we do not kow tow, okay. Unlike you. Racing at night and on the streets. Cheh!

Back to the highways. Yes. That was done by us, the Malaysian Malays. Look at how successful the highways, as a business, are. I know. In other countries, like yours, highways are built for logistical purposes but here, let me remind you, highways are primarily for business and investment purposes.

As you can see, we, the Malaysian Malays are inventors of new businesses. And to top it all, even when the highways are raking it in, in terms of toll collections, our government would compensate the highway company in the hundreds of millions. And we do that, my little Singapore friends, without kow tow-ing to anybody. Nope. No kow tow, kau tau?

We, the Malaysian Malays are the masters. We excel in every fields of business. In construction industry, we obtained contracts recently for the construction of the new palace.

Not only that, we even managed to negotiate with the government, whose allocation was initially RM400 million, to increase the cost to about RM800 million. Now tell me. Can you, Singaporean Malays, do that? No way, towkay.

And at international level, we managed to be an agent who put up the deal for the Malaysian government to buy submarines. And we earned, I am told, about RM500 million for that. You think it is easy to buy submarines? No, it is not I am telling you.

There must be an agent to put up the deal. The government cannot just take up the phone and tell the submarine manufacturer that it wanted two or three submarines. Or ask four or five manufacturers to come for presentations and choose one of them to supply the darn submarines.

No. The government needed us, the Malaysian Malays to be agent. And, of course, we do that without kow tow. We do not have to kow tow, get it?

You all Singapore Malays, you can do like that ah? Sure kenot. You all are losers. I am sure you all supported England that night, didn’t you? 4-1. Bumbling kow-tow-ing idiots! Golden generation konon. If that was golden, than I wonder how brass looks like!

You all have Perkasa or Gertak or not? Ha… got or not? You see, we Malaysian Malays are so lucky. We have Perkasa and Gertak to look after our rights and entitlements.

That is why we do not have to kow tow to anybody like you all. We know our rights man. Our Constutilation. Yes. Our rights and entitlements are all mentioned in the Federal Constitulations.

Our supremely brave and intellectually inclined leaders or Perkasa and Gertak have read them. And we believe what they say too. That is why, we do not have to kow tow to anybody. Kau tau?

So please. Don’t you make noise here and there about us Malaysian Malays. I know and the whole world know that despite you saying Johor Baru is so full of thieves and whatever (by the way, haven’t you all heard, crime rate has gone down by 20 per cent since KPIs were imposed, please update yourself before talking nonsense), you all just love to come to JB to buy your household items, eat in our restaurants and drive so fast on our highways (because you all do not have enough length on your roads to speed up to 130kph in your pathetic Kia Soo whatever). So, beat it, okay. Frankly, I am in love with Singapore as much as I am in love with frozen butter during my free hotel breakfast.

For a few decades, the Chinese community in Malaysia has asked the federal government to accept and recognize the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) awarded by the Chinese independent schools, but nothing comes out of the request.
Each time a plea is made, the federal government would dismiss the UEC as being not in line with the national education policy, and the UEC issue would become dormant for a while, until it is brought up again. This never-ending cycle of ask-reject-ask-reject goes on ad infinitum, without any positive resolution.

On the other hand, gambling which the Chinese community considers undesirable is being promoted as a part of Chinese culture and way of life, and attempts to legalize the demonic habit is propagated as respect for the Chinese culture!
Neither the Chinese community at large or any of the Chinese associations had so far requested that gambling be legalized, yet the political leaders are literally going all out to ensure the legalization of sport-gambling is effected to “respect the wishes of the Chinese”!

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also said that if he were still the prime minister, he would definitely issue the sport-betting licence. Fortunately, he is not the prime minister now!.

Mahathir acted as if he is a defender of the on-Muslim rights, by saying that the government should not forbid the non-Muslims like the Chinese from gambling.

“The Chinese always gamble, it is not haram for them. Why stop them? We cannot stop them from eating pork because for them it is not haram,” he said.

Mahathir’s reasoning lacks sense and is illogical..

First of all, just because some Chinese gamble, it cannot be concluded that all Chinese like gambling. Many of my Malay friends have more than one wife, but that does not mean that all Malay men practice multiple marriages.
Secondly, if the logic of comparing sport-betting with eating pork is acceptable, does it mean that we should legalize prostitution as some men are womanizers? Perhaps, we should also allow drug-taking as drug addicts tend to belong to a particular racial group and thus, drug abuse should be considered as one of the characteristics of that racial group?
Sport-betting activities can now be found everywhere because of the FIFA World Cup fever. Don’t you see that Chinese, Malay and Indian fans are watching the matches every night and those who bet, regardless of races, are still betting everyday?

During the days when lucky draws are made, many people will be queuing outside betting stations and in addition to the three major races of the country, we can also find Indonesian, Vietnamese and Bangladesh workers among the long queue.
Thus, you may have many sophistries for the legalization of sport-betting but please, do not consider gambling as a part of Chinese culture.

Gambling is not a Chinese culture and Chinese are not gambling addicts. Please do not demonize the Chinese if you really respect them!
Sin Chew Daily

Gambling is regarded as one of the social ills and sins in Chinese Culture, the other being womanising, drinking alcohol and smoking opium. Gambling has created a lot of social problems and ruined many lives and families. Legalising gambling by the govt will give it a veneer of legitimacy and encourage more to gamble. The govt should attempt to reduce and eliminate gambling, and not encourage it by legalising it. The companies holding gaming licences are among the biggest companies listed in Bursa Malaysia and the people behind them are the richest in the country. It is great irony that this is so in a country where the majority of its people are not even allowed to gamble. Those UMNO leaders who support for legalising more gambling in order to respect the Chinese right to gamble is just a bunch of hypocrite.

I am not going to offer apologies for speaking about Malay economics. This is the biggest headache. If our PM doesn’t solve this problem, everything else will be on a grid-lock.

His NEM is going to fail if he doesn’t have the political will and iron-fisted determination. It will also fail if he doesn’t put in place a first class government machinery. 1.2 million- strong civil service isn’t good if it doesn’t have the quality to implement.

First and basic of all, if he exhibits ambivalence, a dithering posture, his NEM will fail. If he has this tweedle dee tweedle dum behavior, one day this, next day that style, his NEM will fail.

His NEM is premised on market driving forces. At least, in theory he has got this part of his thinking right. The fundamental rule is- never go against market forces. The essential element of market forces is competition. A position attained is but temporary because, competition drives competitors to dislodge you. Unless of course, that eminent position was attained by non competitive means, by fiat, decree or plain legislation. In that way, prominence and eminence will depend on continued non competitive policies and maybe even coercive power instruments.

Insisting on eminence premised on inherent rights and inherent privileges for example is a clear position that is against market forces. It will fail. Insisting that NEP policies must remain, is just against market forces. Because that way, you institutionalize privilege and ascriptive norms. You institutionalize corner-cuttings, free loadings etc. most importantly, you institutionalize a non competitive culture.

You simply can’t develop a country based on these elements- cutting corners, short cut to everything attitude, shyness to hard work. You can’t develop a country believing it will because of who you are. I mean, the country doesn’t develop only because you are Tun Razak’s son, or Hussein Onn’s son or Mahathir’s son. It’s got to be based on the bricks and mortar principle- hard work and usage of the material between your ears.

Once you institutionalize the bad habits they become culture.

Our PM must realize quickly that culture is our country’s DNA. How do you re-constitute it? Not by pussy footing. It requires laser and invasive surgery. Cultures that evolve and adapt to external stimuli thrive, those that don’t, fall behind. Or those that deliberately resist will fall behind. Something along the line Ibrahim Alis of this world proposed.

That is the reason , the principal reason indeed why I think the resolutions arrived by Perkasa will not be included in the NEM because they are incompatible with the NEM. Its too premature to say, the PM accepts the resolutions of the Malay Economic Congress. Not because PM Najib doesn’t want to, but mainly because he knows incorporating non competitive elements will derail his NEM. But he doesn’t have that courage to say no.

Which is troubling. Because it reflects his lack of that iron fisted determination and drive to see the NEM goes through. And if he abandons his NEM after spending so many man hours and money and PR-ring his masterpiece, he will certainly be categorized in the same class with the Sultan of Slumber- the accidental PM.

And so yes, culture is the issue. I have written that UMNO leaders and leaders of this country need to think about culture if they haven’t done so or read about it if they haven’t done so. If you put in a culture that doesn’t place much value in learning and scholarship, doesn’t reward a person for his intelligence and education and industriousness, you are going to slow down progress. Why should anyone try harder if he knows the next mamat who has less education, fooled around during college and at universities is going to be rewarded more? At the very least, such a person develops lifelong cynicism and disdain.

A culture that doesn’t place much value at all on achievement norms( by which we measure a man based on what he is capable of doing vs. ascriptive norms by which a man is measured based on who he , his father and family is.) is bound to put in a system that is going to slow down progress.

Islam expressly prohibits gambling. The large-scale conversion of Malays to Islam starting from the 13th Century put paid any gambling tendency the Malays may have had up to then. We are not familiar about the religion(s) of the Chinese as to be able to comment on the influence of religion on their gambling tendencies. What has been written in books is that in mainland China, the Chinese were practising Confucianism and Taoism since the era before Christ. When Buddhism came in from India, the Chinese embraced it and by the 5th Century AD, the whole of China from north to south was Buddhist as well. C.P Fitzgerald wrote in his book on the cultural history of China that most Chinese practised the three religions – Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism – all at the same time without any sense of incompatibility. Where gambling came under that scheme of things is not clear to us. Gambling has been with the Chinese for a long time in mainland China.

What is clear from historical records of British Malaya is that the colonial powers gave the Chinese gaming licenses of many types. These in fact enabled many Chinese to make money fairly easily and to get capital for other forms of business. Gambling itself is a huge business among the Chinese. Lim Goh Tong made a pile from his casino at Genting Highlands. Gambling does cause misery and suffering among the addicts and their families. There have been newspaper reports about suicides after properties have been sold to pay gambling debts, divorces and quarrels between husbands and wives concerning household allowances being gambled away. Not just at Genting casinos but also at the Stock market. And unlicensed money-lending business called loan-sharking or “Ah Long” thrived. With it, thugs and gangsters are employed to force repayments of loans given at huge compound interests.

Gambling to some extent occurs at the political level as well. It appears as a big risk that political leaders place so much attention on the interests of the Chinese, including on Chinese schools as you pointed out, while not much attention is given on the interest of the majority Malays and the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak through the New Economic Model and the 10th Malaysia Plan. That affects national unity in the long run.

There are those who claim to be the only ones right and others always wrong. Those who find anything they can to criticize and hit at others, especially the Establishment. The case that should be mentioned often is the ridiculousness of accusing the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission of responsibility over Teoh Beng Hock’s death even just as the Police was beginning their investigation. And the cause of death is still not yet determined by the Inquest that was subsequently held, right to this day. This kind will even deny that gambling is often practised by the Chinese. Figures on visitors to Genting Highlands casinos would verify that. While, admittedly, a number of Muslim Malays may be buying Empat Nombor Ekor and lottery tickets directly or through others, the vast majority of those engaged in such gambling is Chinese.

In the competition to get Chinese votes, the MCA, a component member of the ruling alliance, also appears to have been tagging along the criticising of the Establishment which they are a part of. For example, on the issue of Chinese schools which use Mandarin as the medium of instruction, contrary to Article 152 of the Constitution on Bahasa Malaysia as the National Language. And the issue of scholarships designed to help the Malays who are left far behind the Chinese economically and educationally, although deserving non-Malays also get such scholarships. When the authorities announced the stopping of scholarships for overseas studies, they became startled and started appealing for a reverse of that decision.

The Government should not kow tow to the demands of those who are already far ahead economically and educationally. They are in control of the economy and should let the huge gap between them and the Malays and the Bumiputeras of Sabah and Sarawak be reduced to acceptable levels for the sake of long-term unity and uninterrupted progress.

I like the form of address “ex-prime minister-cum-your senior minister-cum-your minister mental “ and the statement “As Singapore Malays, you of course have to kow tow to your Supreme Leader and so you agreed with him”.

But being “the best Malays in the whole world. The luckiest Malays in the whole world. And the most successful Malays in the whole wide world”, I don’t know about that. I hope we are. They say the Rumpun Melayu or Family of Malays is spread far and wide.

It is common knowledge that Lee Kuan Yew ruled Singapore with an iron hand, like the “Supreme Leader” in communist North Korea. He has not relinquished power despite stepping down as Prime Minister and continued as a Minister Mentor, what ever that means. Malays as well as non-Malays in Singapore hardly have freedom of saying anything againgst the Government. There is the favourite expression of “Big Brother is on the wall”, always listening to and watching what the citizens say or do. Opposition members of Parliament get sued to bankruptcy and automatic disqualification as an MP the moment they step beyond Lee Kuan Yew’s norms. At times there were only two opposition members in Parliament. Foreign observers know the farcical state of democracy in Singapore.

Studies carried out by linguistic experts since the 19th Century have shown that the Malays, a nation of seafarers with ship-building (beginning with boats fitted with outriggers) and navigational skills, have existed in the Malay Archipelago since over 5,000 years ago, traversed seas and oceans, settling as far north as Madagascar and South Africa, south as far as the Christmas Island and New Zealand, east to Cambodia, Vietnam and Taiwan, to the islands of the Pacific and Austronesia, even as far as Hawaii in present day US. Hence the terminology Proto Malays, Deutero Malays, Malayo-Polynesians and Austronesians all refer to the same Family of Malays or “Rumpun Melayu”. In South East Asia, the Malays of Malaysia technically include all the natives of Sabah and Sarawak (collectively known as Bumiputeras or sons of the soil) despite differences in religious affiliations. Similarly all the the Indonesians and Filipinos are Malays except those who immigrated from outside the region in the last several hundred years. Even Christian Filipinos acknowledge this and they call their independence fighter, Jose Rizal, as “The Great Malay Hero”.

The findings of the language scientists of the 19th Century on the above were reinforced by researches and studies carried out scientifically by anthropologists, archaelogists and others in the 20th Century, especially in the latter half of that century. Scores of books have been written about them and a complete bibliography is available in the book “The Malay Civilisation”, published by the well established Malaysian Historical Society in 2007.

In the context of the spread of the Malays as stated above, determining “the best Malays in the whole world” might take some doing.

Some attempt at ridicule but are far from successful. The Malays are never 2nd class citizens in this country. The Special Position of the Malays that had existed since time immemorial has been recognized and reaffirmed as Article 153 of the Constitution. This was said so by the British Colonial Secretary during the debate on the Malaya Independence Bill in the British Parliament in the 1950s. Hansards or the British Parliamentary records of the time would show that the Secretary (equivalent to Minister) concerned said that the Special Position of the Malays has always been there “since day one”, recognized and respected by the British since they first made contacts with this country. As such, the Malays were and are never 2nd class.

The non-Malays also are not 2nd class if they recognize and accept that the Malay Special Position has been there since historical times like the British did and still do. They have equal rights in everything and equality in Malaysia must take into account of the Malay Special Position which was reaffirmed in the Constitution as a quid pro quo for the Malay leaders of the time agreeing to citizenship for the non-Malays. There must be a spirit of give and take among Malaysians for national unity, continued peace and uninterrupted progress in this country. In this context, the give could be interpreted as the agreeing to non-Malay citizenship and the take is acceptance of the Malay Special Position.

What Malay economics is the man talked about? What “first class government machinery” to put in? Why is he said “1.2 million- strong civil service isn’t good if it doesn’t have the quality to implement”. Can Najib put in 1 million civil service and did his NEM? New civil service and first class one?

He appears to be referring to the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the New Economic Model (NEM). “Insisting that NEP policies must remain, is just against market forces. That way NEM will fail”, says he repeatedly. He appears to be the know-all economist. Yet economists the world over are often not agreed on economic issues, like on the last economic recession in the US, or even the Great World Depression some 70 years ago in the 1930s.

Don’t “institutionalize privilege and ascriptive norms”, don’t “institutionalize corner-cuttings, free loadings etc”, he says. He may have a point, but only up to a point. It is agreed that privilege and ascriptive norms should not be institutionalized to benefit only cronies, family members and influential politicians. The benefits of the NEP must be spread as wide as possible. Those genuine businessmen – as distinct from businessmen-politicians – who have some experience in accumulating, retaining and expanding wealth must be given the opportunities to grow bigger and retain more wealth. The keen and industrious new ones must be given the opportunities to acquire wealth in a non-even playing field that has been prevalent until now. The NEP must be retained for that purpose. If the writer is not happy about the method of NEP implementation, he should say so. Do not burn the mosquito net just because of a few mosquitoes, says the old Malay proverb.

The man was a State Legislative Assemblyman for one term and must have known what the Civil Service is all about. You take what you get and try to improve the Cvil Service the best way you can. They are the agents of change and they must be nurtured with acceptable values. By all means instill into them non-corrupt and carry-out-instructions values as much as possible through Bureau Tata Negara and other courses. But they always have, and are continuously given, discretion when implementing policies of the Government. That’s the way the system works in democratic countries. They can use their discretion in respect of elements of the NEP that may be in the NEM. It’s up to them to apply such discretion and they cannot be said to be no good or “have no quality to implement” when they act according to what they see or understand as being in line with whatever policies there may be.

No doubt they may sometimes apply policies in favour of the Malays in line with the NEP or whatever NEP there may be in NEM. This is why some non-Malays are grumbling about the civil service, some even asking for more places in the service despite not doing anything reciprocally in respect of places in the businesses and sogososhas owned by the Chinese. Now this writer is singing to their tune. He does not contribute to the unity of the Malays and the bridging of the huge economic gap between the Malays and the Chinese which is so essential for the unity of Malaysians as a whole.

I’m not economist but I see sensible in saying “Insisting that NEP policies must remain, is just against market forces. Because that way, you institutionalize privilege and ascriptive norms. You institutionalize corner-cuttings, free loadings etc. most importantly, you institutionalize a non competitive culture.”

Will the Malays not find it good to get competitive spirit? It will make them able face anything in the world.

Under ordinary circumstances, the economy may be driven by market forces and nothing else. But under certain circumstances, market forces make way a little for affirmative action. Even in the US, the Government gave many forms of assistance to certain sectors of the economy, including the corporate giants, in order to recover from the recent economic recession. In Malaysia we have a Constitution that embodies the Special Position of the Malays from which the New Economic Policy (NEP) is derived. The NEP was conceived after the Racial Riots of 1969 which had, as its latent and underlying cause, the huge disparity in the economic and educational position of the Malays compared to the Chinese. That had built up an explosive situation which was sparked off and exploded by the uncontrolled jubilation and wanton acts of election victory celebration. It was decided in 1970 to start the NEP, explained in couched language in view of the racial sensitivities of the time, such as “to reduce the identification of race with economic functions”.

The target of the NEP has not been reached, whatever the reasons may be. To discard NEP is likely to build up another explosive situation. Already Perkasa and the 76 Malay NGOs, Gertak and Melayu Bangkit Rally and the 58 Trengganu Malay NGOs have expressed thier feelings and asked for retention of the NEP. The Prime Minister has said that the 30% Malay corporate wealth target will remain in the New Economic Model (NEM). The Malays are still waiting anxiously on the detailing of the NEP aims and achievement methods in the final NEM document.

The Malays may not have a problem with open competition if it is a level playing field. The Chinese have huge wealth and control the economy practically in all aspects. The Chinese method of business is exclusive, with their clan associations and business guilds. The Chinese have a culture of profit-taking and doing business since time immemorial whereas the Malays started to do profit-taking and go into business only after 1970. Therefore the Malays cannot be expected to accept open competition under those circumstances.

A man is not a man unless he speaks for and protects the interest of his own kind. So says a friend of mine. I know not whether saying so is fine. But talking about market driven forces and what not confuse me, man.

Nations comprise of family groupings and it is the natural instinct of the mankind to protect his family and this applies to the animal kingdom as well. Occasionally we find, both among men and among animals, the instinct missing and the family goes in disarray. This concept extends to the community and race. This thing called politics comes into play and the need to protect and promote one’s own kind may go haywire in the attempt to get the votes of the other communities as well. There should be a good balance.

As far as Sakmongkol is concerned, perhaps he no longer needs or feels obliged to protect and promote the interest of his own community or race because he was not selected to represent his party at the previous general elections. And he feels he is a good economist in speaking for a market driven economy irrespective of the position of his own race, which forms the majority in the country, but is far behind economically and educationally compared to the Chinese. He does not want the affirmative action under the New Economic Policy to continue under the New Economic Model.

His being critical of the poor implementation of NEP is understandable and acceptable but his calling for the concept of NEP to go is not. True, the NEP benefited many cronies, family members and political bigwigs – and action has to be taken in this respect – but there is nothing wrong in the concept. So-called liberal and well educated Malays feeling the NEP is no longer necessary are highly regrettable. They themselves have enjoyed NEP benefits in one form or another. They should not want to deny such benefits to those after them.

Affirmative action needs to continue to reduce the huge gap in the economic and educational position of the Malays compared to the Chinese. The NEP has to be accomodated in the NEM to reduce the gap to acceptable levels so that long-term peace and progress can be achieved. Achieving a developed status needs not be rushed for the sake of long-term peace and uninterrupted progress.

how crude can the sin chew fella get. old man supports them also the fella hit. nothing seem to be right by this fella. what school he went what people he mix with i want to know.

old man says “The Chinese always gamble, it is not haram for them. Why stop them? We cannot stop them from eating pork because for them it is not haram” but the the fella says “Mahathir’s reasoning lacks sense and is illogical”.

Tun Dr Mahathir said football betting license may be given. It is true that the Chinese always gamble; it is an undeniable fact. That gambling is not haram for the Chinese and that we cannot stop them from gambling are also undeniable facts. We, too, fail to see the wrong TDM did in saying what he said. He did not, for example, say that gambling is a part of Chinese culture.

In the zealousness to say their points some people may go overboard in their statements. There may be the commercial aspect of sensationalizing news in order to improve sales of newspapers. If this is the case, it is crude, as you said. But some Chinese are not happy with TDM speaking up for Malay rights and interests in recent times. He has been supporting Perkasa and the 76 Malay NGOs, Gertak and 58 Trengganu Malay NGOs and gave a speech at the Melayu Bangkit Rally in Kuala Trengganu. Despite his age, TDM still has a sharp mind and thinks better than people even much younger than he is. To say that he lacks sense and logic when he supported the issue of football betting license and said what he was quoted as saying is ridiculous and even immature thinking.

In terms of the non-kow towing Malays, they would not only not kow tow to the Sin Chew kind of thinking, they might even detest it. Hopefully everybody will always exercise restraint in their criticism of others. We need goodwill, harmony and unity in this country.

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